Karen Keith’s false claim accusing Nichols of defunding police

Sign up for our free newsletters, created for the culture by the culture!

• The Block A weekly roundup of Greenwood, Tulsa and Oklahoma news.
• The Daily Holler Local, state and national news in your inbox Monday through Friday.

Sign up

TULSA, Okla.–Tulsa mayoral candidate Karen Keith falsely accused her leading opponent Monroe Nichols of voting to defund the police during a mayoral debate hosted by News on 6 Monday night.

Election results during the August primary showed Nichols with the most votes, a first for a Black Tulsa mayoral candidate. Since then, Keith has been working to paint him as soft on crime leading up to the runoff election on November 5.

Keith, a 16-year Tulsa County Commissioner, and Nichols, an eight-year Oklahoma House Rep., are both Democrats. However, they each need Republican votes to win.

Karen Keith misleads voters with “defund the police” claim

The candidates were asked what they believe should be the top priority for the city’s police force. Nichols, a son of a police officer, stressed the need to recruit and retain more officers to get violent offenders off the streets while investing in quality of life issues.

“There’s a bunch of root cause issues. This is not just an enforcement issue,” Nichols said. “But it starts with getting those violent criminals off the street.”

Keith began to echo the need to retain officers before launching an attack that falsely claimed Nichols voted to defund the police.

“Senate Bill 825. Monroe voted to defund the police at the state level, at the state Legislature, and I will never do that. I can promise you, I will always have the backs of our law enforcement officers because they are the ones who keep us safe day in and day out,” Keith said, highlighting her endorsement by the Fraternal Order of Police.

“I would never defund the police. My dad was a police officer, and I’m sure if he were alive today he’d be really frustrated for somebody accusing me of doing so,” Nichols responded.

In an awkward exchange, Nichols asked Keith what the bill she’s referring to did. Stuttering, she repeated the same statement without giving an explanation.

Keith: “It would defund the police.”

Nichols: “How so?”

Keith: “It was-the bill was set up to defund the police. So, when municipalities have their funding, and it would not allow municipalities to take funding away from the police. That’s how it was set up.”

What did Senate Bill 825 do?

After the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, conversations about redirecting some police funding to other city services began to increase around the country.

Passed and signed into law in April 2021, Senate Bill 825 amended a law dealing with municipal taxes. Essentially, it was an effort to prevent cities in Oklahoma from redirecting police funding to other services without a vote of the people.

“Any municipality that levies a dedicated tax pursuant to a vote of the people for the purpose of funding public safety or any other governmental purpose shall not redirect all or a portion of the dedicated tax revenue to another purpose without a vote of the people authorizing such action,” the bill states.

 “This bill simply says if the public votes for a tax increase for public safety, then that funding cannot be cut or redirected without going back to those citizens for a vote before any changes are made,” the bill’s author, Rob Standridge (R-Norman), said after the bill passed the Senate.

The bill passed the House 75-16, with support from Republicans and opposition from Democrats. One of those Democrats voting nay was Nichols.

The bill would not have defunded police as Karen Keith claimed, and if the bill would have failed, cities would’ve been free to redirect funding without a second city-wide vote of the people.

Ultimately, Republicans and Democrats disagreed on how cities could choose to alter their own funding, but none of the lawmakers themselves were voting to defund the police.

Related Stories

• Karen Keith Dog Whistles to MAGA with Sanctuary City Rhetoric
• Child well-being on the ballot in Tulsa Mayoral Election
• Tulsa Mayoral Runoff: Monroe Nichols Poised to Make History

Record shows Nichols voted for more police funding

Meanwhile, Nichols joined Republicans in supporting a bill this year–Senate Bill 102–that would increase municipal contributions to police pension funds.

It’s unclear whether Karen Keith’s claims of defunding the police were a misunderstanding of the bills or whether she was attempting to make a veiled appeal to conservative voters.

Notably, white politicians who accuse Black political candidates of being soft on crime are often using racist dogwhistles, according to the Center for Policing Equity.

“The foundation of the narrative is deeper, though, and has shaped the country’s ideas of crime and punishment since before there was a country: Black people are the threat, and White people are the public deserving of safety,” the organization wrote last year.

The deadline to register to vote in Oklahoma is October 11. The election for Tulsa Mayor takes place on Tuesday, November 5 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Early voting takes place Wednesday, Oct. 30 – Friday, Nov. 1 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can also vote early Saturday, Nov. 2 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Click here to register online to vote or visit your nearest County Election Board office.

Watch the full exchange on police funding below, beginning at the 17:20 minute mark.